Livonian edit

Etymology edit

Latvian cukurs acquired the <c> (/ts/) sound only in the 19th century, before that it is attested as sukurs. Karulis thinks that the Latvian term was borrowed via a historical Livonian form sukker.[1] Suhonen, in turn, list the modern Livonian tsukkõr as borrowed from Latvian cukurs, alongside he also lists sukkur from the comparably poorly attested Salaca Livonian and the form cukars from Dundaga Latvian[2] (close to the modern Livonian speaking area), the latter is essentially identical to the modern Livonian term in its phonetic makeup.

This would not be the only example of re-borrowing, compare, for example, Livonian būojõ from Latvian bojāt which ultimately from Livonian pūoj.

If both Karulis and Suhonen be right, then the origin of this term is tsukkõr < Latvian cukurs < Livonian sukker ~ sukkur < German Zucker < Italian zucchero < < Arabic سُكَّر (sukkar) < Persian شکر < Sanskrit शर्करा (śarkarā).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

tsukkõr

  1. sugar

Declension edit

References edit

  1. ^ “cukurs” in Konstantīns Karulis (1992, 2001), Latviešu etimoloģijas vārdnīca, Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN
  2. ^ Seppo Suhonen (1973), Die jungen lettischen Lehnwörter im Livischen, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 228